Cisco Rival Arista Networks Files For IPO

Published March 31, 2014

Reuters

Arista Networks Inc, which makes network switches for large data centers, filed for an initial public offering on Monday, the latest in a string of cloud computing firms tapping investor enthusiasm around the technology.

Arista's filing comes a week after data storage provider Box Inc filed to raise up to $250 million in one of Silicon Valley's most highly anticipated IPOs of the year.

Box rival Dropbox is expected to file plans for an IPO in the coming months.

Santa Clara, California-based Arista listed Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as lead underwriters to the offering in its IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The company, whose competitors include Cisco Systems Inc , said it would raise $200 million from the offering, but the final size of the IPO could be different.

The company, led by former Cisco executive Jayashree Ullal, builds switches that handle traffic at large internet data centers for companies including Facebook Inc, Yahoo Inc , Comcast Corp and Citigroup Inc.

Ullal has been CEO since October 2008 and is also Arista's largest individual shareholder, according to the IPO filing.